Review: 2012 Displays Childlike Glee Amid Destruction

2012 is Roland Emmerich’s best movie since Independence Day. Take that however you please.

The German director is a filmmaking Peter Pan. He won’t grow up. Like most kids, he undoubtedly created horrible scenarios with his toy train set. Unlike most kids, he probably added some lighter fluid and lit a match. In many ways, he’s dared to make a movie that only children would suggest making: An impressive doomsday fireworks display with no other purpose than destruction.

If you’ve seen any of Emmerich’s other movies, you know that actual plot points are perfectly unimportant. For those curious, 2012, which opens Friday and is rated PG-13, deals with Jackson Curtis (played by John Cusack). A failed writer turned limousine driver, Jackson is trying to get in the good graces of his ex-wife (Amanda Peet) by taking their kids camping in Yellowstone National Park.

Soon, Wyoming and the rest of the planet are completely bludgeoned by a combination of deadly solar flares, tectonic upheavals and supervolcanic eruptions. I think there might also be a galactic alignment of some sort, but after the film’s 158 minutes of cryptic Mayan prophesies, crust-displacement theories and all-out devastation, it’s almost impossible to put the pieces together. The point is, the proverbial apocalypse hits the fan.

Luckily for Jackson and the people around him, a conspiracy theorist named Charlie Frost (a thoroughly amusing Woody Harrelson) points the group toward salvation — a hidden, Noah’s Ark-style government operation that ensures the rich survive and the poor meet horrible, elemental fates.

Much of this film is animated, but it’s virtually impossible to tell. In particular, the destruction of Los Angeles is a visual feast. It is an accomplishment in action filmmaking. This scene highlights Emmerich’s childlike glee as a filmmaker: It’s impossible for a car to fly as the ground crumbles underneath, but it happens in this world. Truth be told, it’s a cinematic representation of Nintendo’s Mario running across collapsing bridges. Above all, it’s funny.

It’s important to remember that Emmerich (Universal Soldier, Godzilla, The Day After Tomorrow ) has been at the forefront of the action-disaster genre for almost 20 years. To his credit, he has created many exciting, awe-inducing exhibitions, thanks to special effects wizardry.

This film is no exception. But unlike with his earlier works, including 1996’s Independence Day, Emmerich and his team have now gotten to a point where miniatures and models are irrelevant.

In 2012, Emmerich once again displays a fascination with the melodramatic and the superficial. His past several movies have been disappointing sidesteps but, for what it’s worth, this is a return to form.

2012 is precisely like waking up early on a Saturday morning, overdosing on that chocolate cereal you aren’t supposed to eat and playing Mortal Kombat for the fatalities. Just make sure you bring your aspirin.

WIRED Stunning displays of comic book apocalypse.

TIRED Dear Mr. Emmerich, I know you like your scripts. However, an editor would do you good.

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